According to her research, Souders says, the club has 999 members from around the world. “But no one really knows for sure.”

Since beginning her research four years ago, Souders has talked with hundreds of people and has researched deeds, census records, archived newspaper articles and other documents.

The people she hasn’t talked to are Pine Valley Mayor Michael Kennedy and the golf club’s course manager, Charles Raudenbush.

“They don’t talk to anybody,” Souders said. “That’s their M.O.”

Attempts by the Courier-Post to reach the two were unsuccessful.

Souders says her curiosity about Pine Valley was piqued when she heard about a woman named Virginia Ireland, who in the 1880s bought up more than 1,000 acres in Clementon and Pine Hill. The bulk of that land would eventually become Pine Valley Golf Club.

Virginia was married to Howard I. Ireland, a Philadelphia advertising man. And Souders’ husband, Bill, has a distant connection to the Irelands. In 1904 his great-grandparents bought 80 acres of land next to the Ireland estate.

“The book really came about because of Bill’s family and the connections there. I wanted to write about Virginia,” said Jackie. “She had built this huge estate on her grounds, they had stables and a guesthouse that was itself a mansion.”

Pine Valley Golf Club remains a mystery to many./Photo by John Ziomek, Courier-Post

But as she began her digging into the life of Virginia Ireland, Souders said the grip of Pine Valley took hold.

“I’m a very curious person,” she said. “And isn’t it ironic that a woman started it all, and now women aren’t allowed to become members?”

In fact, women can play the course after 3 p.m. on Sundays, but only if they are invited by a member. There are no female members.

Souders’ research is chronicled in her book, “100 Years of Mystery at the World’s No. 1 Golf Course.” The book is available through Amazon.com or pinevalleymystery.com.

“One of the more intriguing mysteries,” Souders writes, “regards George A. Crump, the designer of Pine Valley Golf Course, and whether he died from a tooth abscess or a gunshot wound to the head.”

Souders could find no death certificates for Crump, a Camden native who owned a Philadelphia hotel.

According to Souders, Crump lived in Merchantville and golfed with friends at an Atlantic City course in the early 1900s. He wanted to create a course closer to home so he and his friends wouldn’t have to travel as far, she said.

In 1912 Crump purchased the first parcel of land that would become Pine Valley.

He died in January 1918, with four holes of the course unfinished.

The Ireland guest house, situated across Timber Lake, is within walking distance of the golf course. Souders said her research revealed that the house was visited by legendary gangster Al Capone.

“Old-time locals tell of stories of underground tunnels through which truckloads of illegal liquor were brought in (to the house during the Prohibition Era),” Souders writes.

During World War II, she adds, the house was occupied by Dr. Benjamin Blanchard, who had experimented extensively on the development of sonar. “Many locals often told stories of electric fencing surrounding this property and the comings and goings of Army jeeps and secrecy,” Souders writes.

The golf club also had a brush with notoriety in December 1975, when a man was found slain outside its gate. Felix Melendez, who was a suspect in the slaying days earlier of Philadelphia publisher John S. Knight III, had been shot once in the head.

The mobster and murder stories only add to the mystique of the famed golf course.

“It’s magical,” observed Bill Souders, who said he played the course once. When asked about it, he doesn’t miss a beat: “Nov. 17, 2008. I shot a 106 — 53 on the front nine, 53 on the back.

“I was very happy with that,” he said. “It’s not like you’re in New Jersey, it’s like you’re in New England, with all the hills and pines.”

Not everyone is pleased that the golf course is a borough, though.

“Pine Valley has no business being its own municipality,” said Dan Keashen, a spokesman for Camden County.

“Pine Valley has a total of 12 residents living on the course. This is part of municipal madness that plagues our state and drives up the cost of government and increases property taxes.”

Souders noted the Encyclopedia of New Jersey is almost two inches thick, and the entire mention of Pine Valley consists of three paragraphs.

“Isn’t that weird,” she asks.

“Why hasn’t anybody or any official ever stood up and said, ‘What’s going on here?’